The Louisville Cardinals return to the YUM! Center following a road trip that was filled with ups and downs. Chris Mack’s squad had possibly the most disappointing loss of their season, falling to Pitt in overtime giving the Panthers their first ACC win since 2017. The Cards would turn it around as they had one of their best wins of the season as they would beat 12th ranked North Carolina on their home court by 21, showing just how dangerous the team can be when dialed in.
Louisville is looking to replicate the performance they shown on the back end of the road trip as they welcomed the Boston College Eagles to town as they hope to find their groove heading into the meat of ACC play. Boston College came into tonight’s matchup at 9-6 overall and 0-3 in ACC play. Although the Eagles may not have the best record they can be a dangerous squad and are led by guard Ky Bowman who is averaging 20.3 points per game.
The game would start off sloppy for both squads and although Boston College settled for jump shots early they would find their groove well before the Cards as the Eagles would jump out to an early lead. For the better part of the first half Louisville would be plagued on the offensive end by poor shot selection and turnovers while it seemed like Boston College was getting hotter by the possession.
Louisville remained ice cold until Chris Mack called a timeout at the 8:27 mark and the Cards trailed 23-14. Whatever he drew up or said in the timeout was just what his squad needed as Louisville would immediately come out swinging and would end the half on a 29-10 run, led by Jordan Nwora and Dwayne Sutton who would pour in 18 and 12 points respectively seemingly making big shot after big shot. Boston College could not seem to wait for the intermission as they could not stop the bleeding and would go in to half trailing 43-33 to the Cards.
The second half saw the Cards continue their strong play that they ended the first half with by jumping out on Boston College and slowly building their lead. Jordan Nwora once again was leading the way and it seemed as if the rest of the Cards fed off his energy as shots seemed to be falling left and right for Louisville. At one point the lead was 73-52 and seemed to be a runaway Louisville win but the Eagles pulled out the same kind of run that Louisville did in the first half by dialing up their defensive pressure as the Cards seemed to grow passive.
Boston College would go on a 16-0 run to cut the lead to 5 until Christen Cunningham went to the line and hit two free throws to give Louisville their first points in 5 minutes of play. After that point Boston College could not close the gap as the Cards seemed to settle down and a late Nwora three pointer put the game on ice. Louisville would go on to win 80-70. Jordan Nwora had an impressive night for the Cardinals in all facets of the game as he finished with 32 points, 10 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 block and 1 steal on 12-16 shooting and 5-9 from deep. Boston College coach Jim Christian had high praise for the Cardinal star saying “he is without question the most improved offensive player in this league”.
With the win Louisville improves to 12-5 overall and 3-1 in ACC play and seem to be improving by the game. That is a scary thought for the rest of the ACC as the Cardinals have proved they can beat anyone on any given night in league play as no team will want to play them when they are firing on all cylinders. Louisville now heads to Georgia Tech on the road to face a tough Yellow Jackets team on Saturday before returning home to face NC State.
